Eleventh Night - Part 2 - He's Still Alive?!

The Water Sentinal was out of sight but its underlings were approaching the "corpse"

To waste no time, Sceke position himself near the stairs while Old Ze waited on the front below the cave's window.

Sceke then ran at full speed and stepped onto Old Ze's hands which the old man used as a spring.

He jumped high out of the cave and while mid-air, a sword coagulated from energy in his grip, and his body dived into the flood infested with water creatures near Renir.

The drainers had no other senses than finding their victims so they were not frightened when someone swung swords to their bodies.

Sceke, on the other hand, couldn't believe he had killed five drainers in one slash which was a high accomplishment!

But he did not celebrate and pulled the "corpse" or else, the most dangerous one in the flood might sense them.

Old Ze immediately ran down the stairs so that he could assist Sceke when he will arrive at the entrance to the cave.

Meanwhile, bravely, Ye with Hanzee positioned themselves by the window to support Sceke from the incoming drainers or scrapers.

They did not wait long to see a swarm of these water creatures approach both Sceke and the "corpse"

Hanzee kept his distance to Ye so balls of light appeared and surrounded him with burning auras.

Ye prepared pebbles on her pouch and took a bunch. Unlike Hanzee, she didn't have full control of her projectiles since all she needed to do was give the direction or trajectory and throw the stone for it to turn into sharp knives with speed and power relative to her energy.

So her job was to decrease the incoming water creatures so as to reduce the risk of hitting Sceke.

Hanzee's fireballs didn't the firepower to kill a water creature underneath the flood.

But he would compromise by targeting one water creature with two fireballs, the first will make a path for the second one to hit the target. His advantage was his accurate projectiles that would hit the nearby water creatures that will try to harm Sceke.

On their sight, Sceke desperately swam like a frog while trying to cut down any drainers or scrapers that not Hanzee nor Ye could hit near him.

He felt his strength was leaving him while his weight increasing and dragging him down because of the energy he was exerting.

Both Hanzee and Ye threw their first wave of attacks to relieve Sceke with all their might since their foes were increasing.

But even with their efficient roles, Sceke could only grit his teeth since two or three water creatures got past the two's protection before he could slash them with his sword.

Yet, he did not give up since he was near the entrance of the cave.

Veronia waited for her chance to help. In reality, her ability wouldn't be much of a help in this circumstance because she was great at sneaking, reflexes, and speed. However, because she achieved Rank 4 not long ago, she has the transcendent skill of Shadow Steps.

The moon peak in the night sky and gave the flood its utmost false brilliance as it reflected its bright moonlight to hide the terror within.

There was total silence and if anyone saw this, they wouldn't know tragic that happened countless times here. There was the only beauty of the clear ocean-like flood that stretched to both horizons past the gigantic green of mountains.

At this moment, Sceke with all his might was near enough for Veronia to act and used her Shadow Steps.

Her Shadows Steps allows her next step to transform her into a mist of shadow, she will become invulnerable and skip her step at will when activated.

It sounds simple but this was a multiplier in her power for close combat quarters where every movement is essential!

The only problem was this skill was disadvantageous in fighting under the water. But even so, with this skill, she could help.

Unhesitatingly, Veronia stepped forward and vanished into a form of black mist only to appear underwater and with her speed created the power to slash to the drainers and scrapers that were near Sceke.

Her energy was greatly taxed by this transcendent skill, not like her first skill which was passive and gave her the stealthy speed she has.

Both Hanzee and Ye went down to the soiled stairs to help since Sceke already reached the window of the cave's blindspot. As they positioned, they continued their attacks with heavy sweating on their faces.

Ye wanted to close her eyes for her not to see the "dead body", but she couldn't since she needed to focus her attacks.

On the dangerous flood, seeing that Sceke was slower than before since his energy was already exhausted, Veronia pushed him for Old Ze to drag him out of water and rest.

Even with disgust and pain from the water creatures that switched their targets from Sceke to her, she paddled her feet fast enough to enable her to pull the body while Hanzee and Ye threw most of their energy to throw projectiles.

Splash!*

"Huwahhh!", they all dropped on the ground except for Old Ze who wasn't that tired.

Guilty, he took some of his chylefruit bits and unhesitatingly put them on each of the four's mouth.

They wanted to tell him to stop but they have no energy to do so and let the old man do his part.

After a minute of rest, Sceke deeply breathed, drenched from head to toes, and said, "Aren't we did something stupid?"

"Well,", Veronia, also drenched, smiled while the wounds on her legs heal, "We are all dumb."

"... I couldn't deny that...", Hanzee, also drenched but with sweat, replied.

Nobody wanted to say what the dumb thing about what they did - the effort they gave for a lifeless person without anything to gain.

It was grim for a "corpse" to be lying beside them as they joke around, so much so that Ye teared up silently. So Old Ze took her up to comfort the young girl again.

He didn't want her to see the "lifeless body" any longer. Later on, once Hanzee had enough energy, they will burn the body to put it to rest and in peace.

'Maybe this naivete and unnecessary kindness of ours made us laughingstocks in the City of Misfortune...', Old Ze thought with a sad smile.

Down the stairs, Veronia with the most energy from the three sat up and curled as she stared at the bloodied body. The body was covered with so much blood that even when it was washed away from the water, the redness still barely covered.

Even though the moon was so bright, it was still moonlight that failed to lighten the shaded entrance of the cave.

So only the lustrous fresh blood and the paled skin could be seen from the body.

But it could be obviously seen that this man was naked except for the little clothing that was enough to barely cover his private part.

After Veronia sat up, from the chylefruit bits that Old Ze gave them, it gave both Hanzee and even Sceke energy to follow and sit up, encircling the unmoving body.

"What should we do?", Hanzee asked, "Should we pray for him?"

"Pray to whom?", Sceke answered with a darkened face, still lightheaded from exhaustion.

".....", both Hanzee and Veronia couldn't answer.

Seeing their silence, Sceke realized what he said, "Ah, I meant whose god should we pray him to?", he said with a light face.

"I don't know any gods...", Hanzee only asked earlier since he didn't know what to do in burning a dead body since this was the first time this happened.

"Maybe, just pray to his soul?", Veronia suggested.

Sceke weakly nodded, "Sure"

The three went into complete silence and tried to pray for the soul of the supposed dead.

While praying, they couldn't help but had thoughts tangent to their prayers until the three went emotional with tears silently dropping from their clenched eyes.

This wasn't the first time they saw a corpse but they were sure this wouldn't be the last. Eventually, some of them would die and the Pentafive would be no more as the ones left will only be filled with grief and sadness instead of a will to survive.

Sceke was first to open his eyes and saw the two crying so he whispered, "Aren't we awesome?", he knew it was rude to celebrate in front of the dead but he did to lighten the mood.

"...", both looked at Sceke.

"We just killed more than dozens of those foul water creatures while saving one body but we all survive!", he smiled.

This accomplishment was rare even in the City of Misfortune. For the first time in a while, they gained confidence that pushed the edge of their lips up.

"Yeah...", Hanzee responded, "We are lucky to survive so we should help the poor people like him who did not..."

With enough energy, a flame rose from his hand and it looked like it burned wood in reverse, creating a torch.

When the soft flame illuminated the entrance of the cave, the three saw it reflected the eyes of the body that was covered in blood.

At first, they realized that this man was a young one and a pity that he was brought into this world but...

Wasn't his eyes closed?

Chills and creeps crawled to their whole body that gave them terrifying goosebumps when they saw these dead man's eyes rolled up to them.

'How could this be? Isn't he dead?', Veronia thought while paralyzed.

They saw no light that should be from a bead of revival so they initially thought this man was dead. Did they get mistaken?

But they realized, they were not when they saw the supposed dead body's chest lifted up as the sound of air wisp into the dead man's nose.

'He's alive?!!', the three thought the same with their eyes widened in fear and confusion!